Daniel Santacruz (born November 23, 1976) is a singer-songwriter, recording artist and music producer. Born in New Jersey and raised in the Dominican Republic to a Cuban father and a dominican mother. Santacruz is a three time Latin Grammy Award nominee.

Early years

While still very young he moved to Santo Domingo with his parents, and immediately felt attracted to the dominican music, mostly merengue.

His musical influences range from Johnny Ventura, Wilfrido Vargas, Fernando Villalona, Sergio Vargas and Juan Luis Guerra to Luis Miguel, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Julio Iglesias and Sting. Although Santacruz has cited that his biggest musical influence was his mother, who from an early age used to sing boleros to him and also used to make ​​imaginary interviews to a young Daniel with a small tape recorder. His father, also a music lover, introduced him to classical music and to the 1950s and 1960s sound. The first musical notes are known from his maternal grandmother Ana Zulema Victoria who was a pianist and also a piano teacher.

Career

His career began in 1996 as a member of various bands in the Dominican Republic. During that time Santacruz found to have writing skills and bought his first guitar. In this period he also participated in studio recordings as a background singer for other artists, and also for radio and TV commercials. In 2000 he was part of the MQV Church choir for two years next to Juan Luis Guerra, who is the musical director of the church.

In 2003 together with Ambiorix Francisco, Santacruz produced his first solo album: Por un beso, earning a nomination for Premio Lo Nuestro as Best New Artist.

From 2004 to 2007 Santacruz took a brake from the stage and started writing and producing for other artists.

At the end of 2008 his second album Radio Rompecorazones is released, produced by himself with Alejandro Jaen. The single "Adónde va el amor?" along with the album achieved two Latin Grammy Award nominations in 2009, Best Contemporary Tropical Album and Best Tropical Song. Both the single and the album received an incredible support in the United States, Latin America and Europe.

History repeats itself in 2011 when his third album Bachata Stereo produced again with Jaén in collaboration with Richy Rojas, with just two months on the market receives again a nomination in the Latin Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Tropical Album

Songwriter

Since 2004, Daniel has received four ASCAP awards (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), one Billboard, and a Premio Lo Nuestro for the songs "Perdidos" and "No Es Una Novela" (performed by the famous Dominican duet Monchy y Alexandra), and "Me Duele Amarte" performed by the successful Mexican band Reik.

Nowadays several songs from the pen of Santacruz occupy important places in the Billboard charts as is the case of "Aprenderé" by Hector Acosta "El Torito" written with Jorge Luis Piloto, and "Mi alma loca" by Andy Andy.